Current location:	Seattle, WA
Current mood:	sick
Entry tags:	energy, environment, oil, politics, post-oil world

Post-Oil World
I love going to a church where I don't agree with the pastor on many of his "social/political concerns." There are my thoughts in response to a blog he posted about our dependence on oil.

I'm looking forward to the post-oil world. Now, I don't think that the world will ever actually run out of oil. But I will concede that if we continue to consume oil at current levels, supply and demand dynamics require that the price of oil continue to rise as the resource dries up. Eventually, oil may become so expensive that it's simply not a feasible resource to convert into power. Much the same way we don't use GOLD when we wire up a house. I think we may be coming close to the tipping point where someone designs a great alternative fuel and the world jumps on board.

That said, I think we need to nurture industrious creativity and optimism about alternative energies (and simply limited consumption) instead of despair over the loss of oil. Perhaps a post-oil world isn't such a bad thing. New energies are becoming cleaner and better. It would be a great thing to harness wind power and nuclear power and other alternatives that are being explored.

And even if there's nothing that's as affordable as oil-

• Maybe it's time we learn that we DON'T need to consume at our current levels in order to be happy?
• Maybe cutting down on how much food we eat (and throw out uneaten) and gadgets we buy (and upgrade before the original is completely used to death) isn't a bad thing?
• Maybe it's time we invested our lives into the people who live next door instead of always driving 20 miles to hang out?
• Maybe it's time we learn to use what they have instead of buying more and throwing usable goods away?